A new season is upon us!

Welcome to the 2017-18 season! With a new season, comes a revitalized blog! This is the first of our weekly blog posts to keep people up to date on happenings as our season progresses. This year, the blog will be connected to our Instagram account, mmscwomensprogram. When a blog is posted, there will be an Instagram post directing followers to the blog! That being said, here is what we have been up to...

MMWA opening weekend was November 4th and 5th, one of the earliest starts to date. Athletes and parents were put through the rigors of orientation weekend as well as the MMWA 25th Anniversary Celebration in our new athletic center. It is always an exciting time of year as many of the student-athletes, parents, teachers, and community members have a chance to say hi after spending months apart.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the first two weeks, please welcome Elle (pronounced ELL-ee) Gilbert to the MMWA/MMSC staff! Elle comes to us from Middlebury College where she was a four year member of the ski team and qualified to compete at the NCAA Skiing Championships. This is no small feat as the field is comprised of the 34 fastest collegiate female skiers in the country. We are fortunate to have Elle join the staff and she is fired up to share her experience, knowledge, and love of skiing with all of our athletes. Not only will she be helping athletes on snow, but she will also be teaching a couple of classes and is a dorm parent at MMWA. Welcome, Elle!

Elle keeping it safe!

Returning to our staff this year are Mike Anglin and Pat Quiet. They will both continue their respective roles from the 2016-17 season; Mike working primarily with the U16 team and Pat with the U19 team.

With a short first week, the athletes had a variety of morning activities as they prepped for Colorado. Their week consisted of very important wally ball training, time in the new gym, hiking around Spruce Peak and getting a tour of the new MMSC Service Center. The group flew to Colorado on November 9th to begin their on-snow training. Here are a few shots from the first week at MMWA:

Once on snow, we were fortunate to have a week of bluebird days! We started with skills and drills on SL skis while battling the Copper opening weekend crowds as well as the Snow Patrol who were doing everything they could to help keep everyone safe. And slow. With skills, drills, and mileage taking us through the weekend, we then moved into the lane space for some extended paneled SL with GS focused movements. While the struggle was real at the beginning of each session, we saw all of the athletes making gains by the end. The attitudes have been incredibly positive even during times of struggle. All of the athletes have been instructed to keep one important word in mind to help maintain the positive attitude: PERSPECTIVE. We come out here to get early season mileage, work on our fundamental base, and spend time together as a team. Making daily gains is about keeping things in PERSPECTIVE and respecting the PROCESS. Not unlike something as simple as fetching a bowl of cereal. There is a step by step process and each step deserves respect. All of the athletes have been tasked with finding a coach in the morning to tell them two things: 1) Something they saw in video that they were doing really well, and 2) something they are going to work on during training on that particular day. We were lucky enough to run into our favorite Colorado skiing enthusiast, Ski Funk! He stopped on one of his laps to put on a dance party for the team. This guy is the best and is absolutely loved by everyone in the group. His love of skiing and funky music is contagious! Check out our Instagram account for some footage of our Ski Funk experience!

We are currently taking our first day off so we can be well rested to finish our camp strong. We have three more days on snow before heading back to Vermont on November 21st. It seems as though we will be returning to a winter wonderland as Stowe opened for the season TODAY! We will be able to commence training following the Thanksgiving break and it will be nice to get on home snow and train at our altitude!

That's all for now but please stay tuned as we are looking forward to keeping you informed throughout the season!

Remember that time I was going to post every week?

I'm back! I don't have an excuse for my lack of continued posting in CO. I will say though, the last few days of the trip were amazing. We seemed to get a bit of fresh snow each night and during the day! The training and free skiing conditions improved everyday, giving us plenty of mileage for the remainder of the trip. The girls did their best to keep track of their runs each day, give or take a run or two because sometimes they would miscount or forget to count or just use a number their friend used...BUT, we ended with the following numbers:

Days on Snow - 11
Total Runs - 1205
Approximate Vertical - 2,108,750 feet
Mileage - almost 400 miles!

Needless to say, we skied SO MUCH! The girls worked hard, improved their skiing AND their wallyball skills.

Since we have been home, it has not been quite as snowy. The Northeast seems to be in a troubling weather pattern as everyone is struggling for snow. We have been pretty lucky that Stowe Mountain Resort has been creative in setting us up with training space. We have bounced around a bit from Ridgeview, Lower Northslope, and have finally settled on T-Line. It has been netted and we will be able to get some productive training for the next couple of weeks. THANK YOU SMR and thank you to Igor for being so persistent in making sure we are taken care of on the mountain!

Here are a few shots from the last couple of weeks:

Copper GS

Finally home at Stowe!

Ridgeview

T-Line

Until next time!

Day 6 & 7 - Colorado Camp

Day 6 moved us into lane space for some apex GS on the upper lanes. When the girls are in a lane with brushes and being "told," where to turn for the first time, things can be difficult. The first few runs were no exception to that! The girls struggled to bring some of the skills they had been working on over the first few days into the lane. After the first couple of runs, we refocused and each athlete brought their individual focus to their runs. The progress we saw throughout the day was fantastic! Every girl made gains in their skiing and they have some stuff to think about as we move forward with our progression.

Day 7 brought us back into the lane space for more apex GS. Although fatigue was setting in as it was our 7th consecutive day on snow, the girls worked really hard and the level of skiing was completely different than the day before. The coaches were impressed with the way the pushed through the fatigue to have a successful day. We took the afternoon off and will roll that into a morning off to give them 24 hours of recovery without losing a day.

We will head out to do a bit of free skiing after lunch and then we have a 1:30pm lane for GS training.

Until next time!

Day 5 - Colorado Camp

Another perfect day on snow! The weather is hard to beat when it is 30 degrees and sunny! Although, tomorrow is looking like mid to high 30's and sunny...so it could top today!

The girls really started to show some improvements today. We started off with three warm-up runs and then we slowed it down for some continued work on ankle flexion and separating the lower and upper body. We then moved to some sectioned free skiing, taking advantage of the vertical to break the hill into multiple sections for video.

We also took some time to enjoy the amazing scenery at the top of the mountain.

After lunch, we went back out for more skiing but after two laps, fatigue was starting to set in with all of the girls. We cut them loose for two more cool down laps to enjoy the sun and perfect snow before calling it a day.

Tomorrow, the girls will be on GS skis again as we will move back into lane space for some directed skiing. We will start with setting an apex GS with brushes and see how the morning progresses before adding some tall gates into the mix. They have worked hard to develop the top of their turn and it will be fun to see them transition that into a course of sorts.

Until next time!

Day 4 - Colorado Camp

Today was a classic Colorado day. With temps in the single digits over night and the storm clearing out, we woke up to blue skies and hero snow. We made the transition to GS skis today and things are always a bit challenging for the first couple of runs on the longer boards. After a couple of warm-up runs, we slowed things down a bit and worked on a few drills that really pushed building early edge angle and ankle flexion. The girls worked hard throughout the morning and everyone made noticeable improvements.

Kate smiles. She really does.

2,000 vertical feet each lap!

Angles giving some girls a tuning clinic

After lunch, we went back out and the girls continued to progress with the developing the top of the turn. It was fun for us (coaches) to watch all of them really start to engage the ankle first and resist the urge to simply drop the hip inside and ride the sidecut of the ski.

Tomorrow, we will be back on GS skis for continued work on the fundamentals. It is supposed to be another amazing day with temps providing a perfect surface!

Until next time!